Fox News is turning 25. As the organization that watches more Fox News than anyone, we wanted to share some moments that defined the network.
Research/Study
400+ moments that defined Fox News
The network just turned 25. It's been a disaster – and it's getting worse.
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
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1996
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A Fox News anchor endorsed Bob Dole for president in the Republican National Committee’s official magazine.
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1998
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2000
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Fox News employed George W. Bush cousin John Ellis, who prematurely called the election in favor of Bush.
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2001
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Fox’s Special Report brought on Republican and Democratic guests at an 8-to-1 ratio.
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2002
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Fox host Bill O’Reilly said 66 percent of people supported invading Iraq without UN support when the real number was 37 percent.
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2003
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Fox host Bill O’Reilly said the Iraq War would “not last more than a week.” He also said that “once the war” in Iraq began, those opposed to the action should “shut up.”
A Fox anchor said the network was “very reluctant to show these pictures” of an anti-Iraq War protest.
A Fox executive’s memo told staffers to note the “political courage and tactical cunning” of President George W. Bush “in our reporting through the day.”
O’Reilly cut off the microphone of anti-war activist Jeremy Glick, whose father was killed on 9/11.
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2004
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Fox’s chief political correspondent wrote and published a fake news story making fun of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on FoxNews.com.
Fox host Bill O'Reilly threatened Canada with a boycott like the one he advocated against France, then cited a phony statistic about the success of the French boycott.
A Fox executive wrote a memo telling anchors to downplay the Abu Ghraib story.
Fox News repeatedly enabled and pushed Swift Boat lies about Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Fox News claimed that Christmas was “under siege.”
Then-Fox News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes staunchly defended his network's “very fine journalists,” but Media Matters documented numerous instances of inaccurate, incomplete, and distorted reporting from Fox's “hard news” reporters.
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2005
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Fox News doctored Associated Press copy to mimic language preferred by the Bush White House.
Fox News repeatedly pushed misinformation about Social Security as President George W. Bush tried to privatize it, including bizarrely claiming that former President Franklin Roosevelt supported such an effort.
Fox's “Supreme Court analyst” was also the founder of a group pressuring the Senate to confirm Bush nominees.
A Fox News anchor suggested anti-war protests are “just giving the terrorists in Iraq ... more hope.”
A Fox News military analyst called for a U.S. district judge to be “drawn and quartered” for ordering the Defense Department to release additional photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
Fox News gave scant coverage to the funeral of American icon Rosa Parks.
Fox News aired 58 segments promoting the idea of a “War on Christmas” in less than a week.
Fox used a TV psychic to claim Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state, was “clear” on what was happening around her.
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2006
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Host Bill O’Reilly said same-sex marriage was linked to interspecies relationships.
In a global warming special, Fox News interviewed climate deniers with ties to the energy industry and records of misinformation on the issue.
Fox News touted a discredited report that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. The network later suggested that Hezbollah may have them.
Fox’s Brian Kilmeade advocated for an “Office of Censorship.”
In order to justify the Iraq War, Fox tried to link Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda with discredited claims.
A Fox correspondent called waterboarding “a pretty efficient mechanism to get someone to talk.”
Fox argued that a civil war in Iraq could be “a good thing.”
A Fox anchor talked about Barack Obama while the network aired footage of Harold Ford Jr.
A leaked memo from a Fox News executive reportedly said that “Iraqi insurgents ... must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress.” The memo went on to smear Democratic leaders.
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2007
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Fox News showed footage of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) while Washington bureau chief Brian Wilson reported on the expected indictment of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA).
Fox hosted a “body language expert” who accused Hillary Clinton of exhibiting “evil laughter.”
Fox & Friends reported on comments from Michelle Obama with the term “the claws come out.”
Fox host Bill O'Reilly went to Sylvia's.
Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy claimed Barack Obama had “patriotism problems.”
Fox host Brian Kilmeade said Obama “went to a madrassa” as a child.
The front page of FoxNews.com contained a headline under the “LATEST NEWS” tab that read “Report: Over 400 Scientists Dispute Man-Made Warming,” the link to which led to a post on the blog of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) — not a news report.
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2008
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A Fox News host referred to Barack Obama as a “Halfrican.” Another Fox host claimed that the “connotation” of Obama's middle name is that he is a “Muslim potentially.”
A Fox News radio host played a “side-by-side comparison” of a Hitler speech and an Obama speech. The same host predicted African-American “riots in the streets” if Obama were to lose to John McCain or Hillary Clinton.
On Fox & Friends, Fox contributor Mike Huckabee falsely asserted, “When Katrina, a Cat-5 hurricane, hit the Gulf Coast, not one drop of oil was spilled off of those rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Fox & Friends apparently digitally manipulated photos of then-New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe; the journalists' teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe's hair moved further back on his head.
A Fox anchor asked if the Obamas engaged in “a terrorist fist jab.”
Fox host Greg Gutfeld criticized Ellen DeGeneres' announcement of her planned marriage to actress Portia de Rossi: “For me, public exhortations of love are no different than telling everyone how great your bowel movements are since switching to All-Bran.”
A Fox News executive pushed on-air lies claiming Barack Obama promoted socialism.
Fox host Sean Hannity hosted Andy Martin — calling him an “internet journalist” — who made what Hannity called “the explosive claim that [Barack] Obama's role as a community organizer was a political staging ground perpetuated by the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers.” Hannity did not note Martin's history of smearing Obama and making antisemitic and racially charged comments.
Fox News obsessively attacked ACORN, a group that attempted to register voters, after James O’Keefe put out a misleading video about the organization.
Fox News hosts and guests frequently advanced the discredited suggestion that the poor, minorities, and those seeking to expand affordable housing were solely or primarily responsible for the crisis facing the housing and credit markets.
Fox News hired Judith Miller, infamous for writing misleading New York Times reports that helped lead the country into the war in Iraq.
Fox News repeatedly aired graphics featuring inaccurate poll-closing times.
Fox host: “I'm all for free speech and free rights, just not on December 25.”
Fox contributor Newt Gingrich warned of “gay and secular fascism.”
Fox contributor Liz Trotta remarked that she wished somebody would “knock off” both Osama Bin Laden and Barack Obama.
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2009
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Fox chief Roger Ailes reportedly said he sees the network as “as the Alamo” against President Obama.
Showing footage of snow, Fox asked, “Global What?”
Fox passed off a GOP press release as its own research — typo and all. Fox later apologized for the typo.
Fox News asked, “Who is behind the biggest money scam ever” — Bernie Madoff or President Obama?
Fox's Brit Hume thanked the right-wing Media Research Center “for the tremendous amount of material" they “provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report.”
Fox's Mark Levin claimed, “FDR led a counter-revolution against the American revolution.”
Fox & Friends hosted a former member of the Colombo crime family and asked him to compare Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and philanthropist George Soros to members of the mob.
Fox Nation featured the headline “Is Obama Targeting Catholics?” but the article to which the headline linked simply reported that the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, had criticized Notre Dame's decision to invite President Obama to speak at its commencement.
Fox Nation featured the headline “Taliban Copies Democrat Playbook,” but the New York Times article to which it linked — which described insurgency tactics such as roadside bombs — made no mention of the Democratic Party.
Fox host Glenn Beck said President Obama is a “racist” with “a deep-seated hatred for white people”; Beck said Obama’s agenda was based on “reparations”; Beck imitated Obama pouring gasoline on the “average American”; Beck pretended to poison Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Fox aggressively promoted anti-Obama “tea party” protests.
Fox News figures repeatedly aired clips of progressives that were cropped in a way that misrepresented their statements.
A Fox Nation headline advanced the falsehood that President Obama had not released a copy of his birth certificate. A later Fox piece would blame Obama for birthers.
Fox News hosts discussed whether they'd rather swallow a live fish or be waterboarded.
Several Fox News figures used a purportedly “suppressed” EPA document to advance the falsehood that, in Steve Doocy's words, “for the last 11 years, temperatures had been dropping.” The claim was not true.
Fox's Megyn Kelly asked if Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's “infamous temper” will “flare-up.” Fox News said it would skip airing questions from some Democrats during her confirmation hearing.
A Fox analyst suggested that the Taliban could save the U.S. “a lot of legal hassles and legal bills” if it were to murder Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl.
Fox personalities endorsed and amplified death panel lies.
On Fox News, opponents of health care reform outnumbered supporters by a 6-to-1 margin during a couple of days of heavy coverage in August.
At the height of the health care reform debate in 2009, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase “public option.” Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use “government option” and similar phrases — wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts.
After Andrew Breitbart posted a video of an ACORN employee in San Bernardino, California, claiming that she had killed her ex-husband, Fox News' Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, Greta Van Susteren, and Sean Hannity promoted it without fact-checking it or indicating that they had contacted ACORN for a response to the claim. In fact, the employee made up the story to troll the actors in the video, who she realized were “playing with” her.
On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity misleadingly aired video from the September 12 March on Washington while discussing Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) much smaller November 5 anti-health care reform rally to claim that “20,000-plus” people showed up to Bachmann's protest.
In its Glenn Beck-driven witch hunt for “czars” in the Obama administration, Fox News turned its attention to attacking Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools director Kevin Jennings, launching many false smears.
A Fox host and his guest suggested secession from the Obama “regime.”
Fox News' Steve Doocy and Martha MacCallum suggested Iraq borders Afghanistan.
In the midst of global climate change talks in December 2009, a top Fox News official sent an email ordering the network's journalists to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question.”
Fox News spent weeks promoting an apparent tea party scam.
Some Fox News personalities attacked the H1N1 vaccine and the CDC’s prioritization of recipients.
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2010
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Fox hosts and guests attacked the DREAM Act — which would provide a path to legal status for certain immigrants who came to the United States as children — with a barrage of inflammatory rhetoric.
After Fox host Steve Doocy corrected his guest Victoria Jackson for saying that Obama was a communist, Jackson said that she knows Obama is a communist because she heard it on Glenn Beck’s Fox show.
Fox News was a BP oil spill misinformation clearinghouse and used the catastrophe to call for more drilling.
Bill O'Reilly told Marc Lamont Hill that, “Say you're a cocaine dealer -- and you kind of look like one a little bit.”
Fox dismissed the 14th Amendment as the “anchor baby amendment.”
After President Obama made the analogy that Republican politicians should have to ride “in the back seat” after driving “this car,” the United States, “into the ditch,” Fox News figures tried to claim that Obama made an “offensive” and “appalling” reference to racial segregation and “the back of the bus.”
Fox led the opposition to Park51, which would have been an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan; network personalities used inflammatory, anti-Muslim rhetoric and compared Muslims to Nazis. Anti-Park51 protestors echoed that rhetoric and imagery, invoking Nazis and anti-Muslim smears.
After President Obama's election, Fox personalities expressed opposition to or called for the repeal of virtually every progressive achievement of the 20th century, including Social Security, Medicare, the Americans with Disabilities Act, portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the 16th and 17th amendments to the Constitution.
Fox News confused Iraq and Egypt on a map.
As Obama eulogized civil rights hero Dorothy Height, Fox News covered the “finding” of “Noah's Ark” – a hoax that had been popular with right-wing blogs that week.
Fox News stood virtually alone in not airing a concert raising money for earthquake relief in Haiti. Its top news programs gave the earthquake scant coverage as well.
Fox News – especially host Megyn Kelly – repeatedly hyped the phony New Black Panthers scandal.
When Obama noted that Hawaii had been hit by an earthquake, Steve Doocy asked, “What Hawaiian earthquake?” In fact, as Fox News reported at the time, President Bush declared a “major disaster” after Hawaii was hit by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in October 2006.
Fox & Friends saw a “Muslim image” in a logo for a Nuclear Security Summit.
Fox News cut away from Obama signing the health care reconciliation bill to cover a plane that had some mechanical problems but “had no problem landing.”
Sources told Media Matters that Fox management was slanting coverage within Fox’s D.C. bureau. (Two sources later told New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman that Fox’s general counsel hired an investigator to obtain phone records of the reporter of the original Media Matters story.)
A Fox News executive said that the network stood “1000%” behind host Glenn Beck's ugly suggestion that the CEO of Jewish Funds for Justice advocated a philosophy that “leads to death camps.”
Fox analyst: “If the feds had not stripped us” of gun rights, “9/11 would never have happened.”
Fox News ginned up controversy about the false claim that U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod made racist remarks at a NAACP meeting. As the claim unraveled, Fox personalities disappeared their role in the story, continued to smear her as “descriminat[ory]” in the face of contradictory evidence, and boldly suggested the network did not contribute to the controversy.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade said that “all terrorists are Muslims.”
Fox & Friends reported that a school in central Florida had banned the “traditional Christmas colors” red and green from classrooms. In a statement to Media Matters, the school's district spokesperson denied this, stating, “There is not a ban on the colors red and green at Heathrow Elementary.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service debunked a “ludicrous” Fox report that Obama gave a “major strip” of Arizona to Mexico.
Fox News attacked the Department of Justice for asking election officials in Ohio to print ballots in Spanish, which Fox claimed would not be “a proper use of funds.” But the Justice Department reportedly said the ballots are needed to obey federal law, which prohibits making a person educated in a Spanish-language school in Puerto Rico understand English in order to vote.
Lou Dobbs joined Fox Business Network, adding yet another birther to its lineup.
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2011
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Fox hosts said the ownership of appliances negates the effects of poverty.
Fox & Friends declared that Obama’s jokes “fell flat,” and, as evidence, aired video clips in which the show replaced the audience’s laughter and applause with cricket sound effects.
Fox News discovered a nuclear reactor in a Japanese disco.
Fox maps confused the location of multiple states.
Fox & Friends on oil drilling: “Just poke a hole in the ground.”
A Fox host teased a segment about the White House hosting the president of Gabon by saying, “Guess who's coming to dinner? A dictator. Mr. Obama shares a laugh with one of Africa's kleptocrats. It's not the first time he's had a hoodlum in the hizzouse.”
Arguing that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from a case, Fox News cited a nonexistent part of the Constitution.
Fox News ginned up hysteria over hip-hop artist Common's appearance at a White House poetry event.
Fox Nation promoted a conspiracy theory that Obama may have had brain surgery.
Fox hired Sarah Palin; Roger Ailes commented: “I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings.”
Fox host Megyn Kelly said pepper spray that was used on protesters is “a food product, essentially.”
FoxNews.com sought to debunk the fact that Earth has warmed over the past 30 years, as well as the notion that human activity has contributed to the warming. But Fox largely ignored climate science and botched basic facts in the article, portions of which “are utter nonsense” and “do not make sense” according to climatologists consulted by Media Matters, including one of the skeptics cited by Fox.
Multiple Fox News shows pushed the racist birther conspiracy about Barack Obama. The network promoted Donald Trump's call for Obama to “show his birth certificate,” and several Fox News hosts hyped Trump's comments without noting that Obama previously released his certificate.
Fox’s unquestioning co-hosts allowed Trump to claim he was “starting to wonder … whether or not [Obama] was born in this country”
Fox headline: “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs.”
A Fox anchor asked Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) if the existence of a volcano on the moon somehow casts doubt on climate change science: “It's not like we've been up there burning fossil fuels.” Nye, clearly taken by surprise, patiently and slowly explained to Scott that, no, volcanoes have nothing to do with fossil fuels.
Fox hosts blamed SpongeBob Squarepants for “pushing a global warming agenda.”
Fox host Eric Bolling claimed that the Muppets were brainwashing kids.
Fox News aired a grossly misleading chart about the unemployment rate.
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2012
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Fox contributor Geraldo Rivera said Trayvon Martin’s hoodie is “as much responsible” for his death as shooter George Zimmerman is.
Fox analyst Karl Rove refused to accept that Barack Obama won Ohio in the election.
Fox host Bill O'Reilly hosted a segment attacking an episode of Glee for featuring a storyline about a transgender teenager struggling with her gender identity. O'Reilly and host Gretchen Carlson criticized Glee for encouraging “dopey kids” to experiment with homosexuality and possibly identify as trans, comparing LGBT youth to smokers and “drug-fueled” celebrities.
Fox & Friends claimed that Obama had a diplomatic meeting with a pirate.
A Fox contributor compared food stamps to a diet plan, saying she’d look “fabulous” if she had to use them.
Fox's Greg Gutfeld: “Catholics write letters and Muslims stab you with letter openers.”
Fox's Lou Dobbs: “I'm not saying anybody is a communist,” but Obama’s 2012 slogan, “Forward,” is tied to communists and fascists.
Fox News regular Jay Sekulow claimed that voting is a privilege.
Fox News highlighted the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation with a discussion of how “government is enslaving people.”
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace aired a deceptively edited video of President Obama's September 12 Rose Garden address to advance the Mitt Romney lie that Obama waited two weeks before calling the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya an act of terror.
Fox host Steve Doocy tried to blame Obama for JP Morgan losses: “If he's the president, he's the president of the banks, too.”
A Fox reporter suggested that “Mars wobbles” may be causing climate change on Earth.
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade remarked that Fox hires female hosts by looking at “the Victoria's Secret catalogue” and asking, “Can any of these people talk?”
Fox News ran a segment sponsored by Walmart that defended that company from workers who were planning a Black Friday strike.
Fox News figures accused Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of faking an illness when she suffered a concussion after fainting due to dehydration.
Fox contributor: “Gingrich's three marriages mean he might make a strong president.”
Fox News deceptively edited Obama's remarks to make it seem as though he was claiming that small business owners do not deserve any credit for their own success. The deceptively edited remarks later became the theme for the 2012 GOP convention.
A Fox guest said that some immigrants are “coming here to cut your lawn” and some are coming to “cut your throat.”
Fox News figures cast Hurricane Sandy as an event that “has nothing to do with global warming.” But climate scientists agree that global warming has exacerbated the flooding from storms like Sandy and is expected to increase the severity of hurricanes.
Fox News contributor: Obama “should go back to burning the taxpayer-funded incense to whatever pagan, foreign deity he's worshipping.”
Fox host Tucker Carlson: The NAACP is “an absurd fringe group” that is “bankrupt literally and morally.”
Fox ignored history and President Obama's own words to attack his 9/11 memorial statement.
Guest Sarah Palin: Obama seems to want to return to the “days before the Civil War” when people were not considered equal.
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2013
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A dishonest Fox chart overstated the comparison between people on welfare versus working full time by 500 percent to falsely inflate the former number.
Fox's Todd Starnes blamed “heterophobic bigots” for an anti-gay pastor's withdrawal from Obama’s inauguration.
After making sexist comments to Fox News contributor Tamara Holder, conservative radio host Bill Cunningham was invited back on to appear opposite her on Hannity, where he once again made inappropriate remarks.
Fox host Bill O'Reilly: I don't know if Jesus would be “down with” welfare, “helping one group by hurting another.”
Fox News chyron: “50 Years After March On Washington, Some See Rap Music As A Problem.”
Fox News' public relations staffers reportedly used an elaborate series of dummy accounts to fill the comments sections of critical blog posts with pro-Fox arguments.
Fox criticized President Obama for offering to personally pay for a “museum of Muslim culture” during the government shutdown, a claim that originated from a satire website.
Fox News frequently warned of the “wussification of America.”
Fox News forwarded the notion that it might be appropriate for school children to be forced to work in exchange for school meals.
After glossing over state Republicans' role in exacerbating long lines at the ballot box, three Fox hosts mocked the hours-long wait and multiple trips a 102-year-old woman endured in order to cast her vote.
Howard Kurtz, host of Fox News' media show MediaBuzz, devoted an entire column to describing in detail the Facebook photos of Ben Bradlee's daughter-in-law and her “candid approach to sexual matters.”
Fox News tried to incite Islamophobic fears in its reporting on a weekly swim class at a YMCA facility that ensures the privacy of Muslim girls learning to swim, framing it as evidence that “Sharia law is now changing everything.”
Mike Huckabee's Fox News program used a mirror placed next to the program's studio audience to make it appear as if far more people were in attendance.
Fox host Lou Dobbs and several Fox contributors — all men — lamented news that a record number of women are now the economic breadwinners of their families, expressing concern about the supposed dissolution of American society and nature.
Fox News employees rushed to defend a Duck Dynasty star's anti-gay comments.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade told the leader of a violent nationalist group that targets British Muslims, “We got your back” and “it's great what you're doing.”
Host Megyn Kelly asserted that Jesus and Santa Claus are white.
Fox News figures dismissed the voices of the families who suffered in a mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, by claiming they're being used and exploited by Democrats, discounting the efforts they have made to encourage Congress to pass stronger gun laws.
Fox News host: “The biggest myth of all time is that sweatshops are bad.”
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2014
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Fox host Bill O’Reilly said Black people should have the words “Don’t get pregnant at 14” on their T-shirts.
Fox & Friends continued its bizarre attack on Illinois State University for designating gender-neutral restrooms, but even a group of “Fox fans” didn't seem fazed by the school's attempt to accommodate LGBTQ students.
Fox News contributor Keith Ablow went on an unhinged racial rant against President Obama, accusing him of failing to protect the country against Ebola because his “affinities, his affiliations are with” Africa and “not us. ... He's their leader.”
Fox News pretended that Coloradans could buy pot with food stamps.
A Fox host referred to a female pilot as “boobs on the ground.”
O’Reilly argued that “there's got to be some downside to having a woman president.”
A member of Fox News' “Medical A-Team” argued that Michelle Obama is not a credible voice on school nutrition because “she needs to drop a few” pounds.
Fox News hosts defended the practice of catcalling, insisting women should “let men be men.”
A Fox host lashed out at the Lego movie, saying it pushes an “anti-business message.”
A Fox News panel defended street harassment as “nothing disrespectful.”
Fox & Friends got very upset that Obama quoted scripture.
A Fox host suggested that all Muslims are like ISIS and the problem should be solved “with a bullet to the head.”
Fox News contributor Allen West questioned the “loyalties” of decorated veteran and Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth for serving with her fellow Democrats on the Benghazi select committee.
O'Reilly asked his colleague Heather Nauert for video of her jogging and sweating.
Fox News hosts lashed out at Media Matters amid widespread condemnation after its hosts argued that young women were too ignorant to vote or serve on jury duty.
Fox News responded to the announcement that CVS would no longer sell cigarettes by criticizing the pharmacy chain and leveling attacks at President Obama after he expressed support for the company's decision.
In the run-up to the 2014 midterm elections, cable news outlets — and Fox News in particular — fearmongered over an Ebola outbreak in Africa, before suddenly dropping the story after the votes were counted.
O'Reilly argued that “all the things that poor people have” prove America doesn't “really have any destitution anymore.”
Fox’s evening lineup aired nearly 1,100 segments on the Benghazi attacks and their aftermath from September 11, 2012, to May 2, 2014.
Fox hosts described torture as humiliating “a few terrorists” and subjecting them to ”a little bit of cold.”
Fox’s Jesse Watters said the statutory rape of a child isn’t as bad if the female perpetrator is attractive.
Fox host Tucker Carlson said reporting statutory rape is “whiny.”
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2015
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Fox News turned to a panel of men to debate whether women should be allowed to wear leggings.
Fox host Bill O'Reilly denied the existence of child hunger, claiming, “It's a total lie.”
Fox host Megyn Kelly on a teen violently manhandled by police: “The girl was no saint either.”
Fox News contributor Allen West went to Walmart and said he was the victim of “Sharia law” because a checkout clerk under the age of 21 couldn't sell him alcohol.
Fox News campaigned to defend Indiana's anti-gay “religious freedom” law.
Fox News anchor and Supreme Court correspondent Shannon Bream reacted to a Paris terror attack by suggesting certain skin tones are more typical of “bad guys” than others.
Fox News reported that an “ISIS-linked” Twitter account warned of a shooting in Tennessee before it happened, but the tweet in question was sent after the attack had ended. The falsehood was propagated by anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller before spreading through conservative media.
Fox expressed concern that Disney's Frozen was “empowering girls by turning our men into fools and villains.”
Fox News told young children to run toward active shooters.
Fox's Elisabeth Hasselbeck suggested that Sandra Bland's lit cigarette could have justified the conduct of police during a pretextual traffic stop.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade asked a Black Fox anchor if she makes Kool-Aid with her cobbler.
A Fox contributor called President Obama “a total pussy.”
Fox’s prime-time lineup began its demonizing of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Fox host Steve Doocy complained about the controversy around an ad suggesting possible date rape: “Remember … when people used to make jokes?”
Fox contributor Brit Hume blamed “the deregulation of sex” for campus sexual assaults.
Fox co-host Stacey Dash said some campus sexual assault victims are “bad girls … who like to be naughty.”
At least we had the llamas.
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2016
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Fox host Sean Hannity spent an entire week promoting conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health.
Fox figures attacked the idea that debate moderators would fact-check candidates.
Fox News host: The Bush administration, not President Obama, got Bin Laden.
Fox promoted Trump’s conspiracy theory that the election would be “rigged.”
Fox News host Megyn Kelly waited until after the election to reveal that Trump had inside information from Fox News about the question she would ask him at the first Republican primary debate, and to confirm that former network chairman Roger Ailes was shilling for more positive coverage of Trump.
Fox figures defended Ailes against sexual harassment allegations, then Fox settled the claim. Ailes resigned from Fox News amid numerous reports of sexual misconduct.
Fox host Bill O’Reilly: Slaves who built the White House were “well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.”
Fox host Brian Kilmeade excused Melania Trump's speech that plagiarized Michelle Obama's because “it actually applies to her life.”
O’Reilly told Trump that Black Americans are "ill-educated and have tattoos on their forehead.”
O'Reilly used images of Obama at a Muslim wedding to claim his “emotional attachment to the Muslim world has hurt the USA.”
Kelly suggested that Philando Castile's girlfriend should have done more to prevent him from being killed by police.
Fox host: Ripping health care away from 20 million people is “acceptable” because we “have emergency rooms.”
O'Reilly claimed feminists should not be allowed to report on Trump “because Trump is the antithesis of” feminism.
On November 2, days before the presidential election, Fox host Bret Baier cited two anonymous sources to issue three explosive claims: The FBI is currently engaged in a “very high priority” investigation of “possible pay-for-play interaction” between Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation that is uncovering an “avalanche” of evidence; the FBI believes with “99 percent accuracy” that Clinton’s private email server was hacked by at least five foreign intelligence services; and that these investigations “will continue to likely an indictment.” After the story fell apart, Baier issued an apology that effectively walked back all three claims.
O'Reilly claimed some women could choose to have an abortion because they have a migraine.
Fox News frequently hosted former Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman despite his repeated use of racial slurs.
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2017
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Fox’s new prime-time host Tucker Carlson quickly began promoting conspiracy theories about “demographic replacement,” while also attacking NFL players for protesting “racism or something” and defending online white nationalism.
A Fox News panel supported the white supremacists marching at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump’s remarks defending the marchers were full of Fox News talking points, and Fox News later tried to rewrite the entire history of the incident.
Fox host Sean Hannity championed conspiracy theories surrounding the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, in an attempt to exonerate Russian hackers who hacked the DNC’s emails during the election. The network eventually retracted its story, which was based on discredited sources, and paid to settle a lawsuit from Rich’s parents.
Fox's Charles Krauthammer compared John Lewis, who was boycotting the inauguration, to Nazi-sympathizing Charles Lindbergh.
A Fox panel cheered on Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte’s assault of a reporter, saying a “snowflake” reporter got “Montana justice.”
A Fox host pushed raids on mosques based on a lie about supposed “no-go zones” that previously caused the network international embarrassment.
Fox host Lou Dobbs: “Determined forces of evil” are trying to “destroy the Trump presidency. This is war, damn it.”
Dobbs was outraged that an FBI nominee refused to take a loyalty oath to Trump.
Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore chose Sean Hannity to interview him about reports of sexual misconduct because Hannity has a reputation for cleaning up Republican messes.
Fox's Ed Rollins bemoaned “the morality police” for calling on Moore to exit the Alabama Senate race.
Fox host Laura Ingraham defended “truly great men” like Robert E. Lee.
Fox contributor: Racism isn't widespread because Black NFL players are “making millions of dollars.”
Hannity's “man on the street” interviews about NFL protests were all with white people.
Dobbs said “U.S. marshals should follow” Obama and bring him back when he criticizes Trump while abroad.
Dobbs said there is “a partisan shroud” around the family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich.
Fox host Bill O’Reilly asked if there was “any difference” between Black Lives Matter protesters and Nazis.
O’Reilly hosted a fake Swedish defense “advisor” to fearmonger about refugees.
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2018
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On Fox Business, host Lou Dobbs defended conspiracy theory outlet Infowars and Alex Jones.
Dobbs said the Hurricane Maria death toll was a “farce” and “an amazing tortured inflation.” Later in the year, Dobbs called climate change a United Nations plot “to take over the world.”
Dobbs suggested with no evidence that sweeping Democratic victories in 2018 were due to migrants who voted illegally.
The network quickly attacked student-led gun safety marches following the deadly mass shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway said survivors are “traumatized children” who were being used for the “gun control agenda.”
Fox host Tucker Carlson compared students protesting gun violence to Mao's Red Guards. Another Fox host said, “Spare me if I don't want to hear the sanctimoniousness of a 17-year-old.”
Hemingway pointed a finger at “the left” and “media” after a man mailed bombs to several Democrats. Fox anchor Harris Faulkner blamed Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) for the bombs sent to Democrats. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade blamed Democrats for incivility. Fox’s “expert” guests kept floating suggestions that the attempted bombings of progressives are a false flag.
Caravan coverage also took over the news cycle because that’s exactly what Fox News and Donald Trump wanted. Notably, Fox personalities repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories about George Soros funding the migrant caravans.
The Fox News interview with Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation battle was a sham, and the network continued to defend him.
Carlson: The Kavanaugh hearing exposed “race hatred” toward whites that could lead to “some kind of conflict.”
Fox & Friends praised Kavanaugh for his unhinged testimony: “He channeled Trump.” Fox & Friends hosts also claimed that Kavanaugh was being racially and gender profiled.
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2019
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Fox host Lou Dobbs claimed Democrats “would love to carry out an actual coup d'état.”
Dobbs called on Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts over pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
Dobbs warned that immigration could “consign tens of thousands, perhaps millions of Americans to their deaths.” The Fox host also endorsed Kris Kobach's proposal to put asylum seekers in a “camp” and later praised an ICE employee for driving his car into a group of protesters.
Dobbs: The southern border is a “battlefield” and the military needs more guns there for when they get “a shot.”
Dobbs on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN): “Who is she representing? Because it isn't America.”
Echoing antisemitic smears, Dobbs said philanthropist George Soros' “tentacles reach out" in order to “work against sovereignty.”
Dobbs said Democrats are trying to “destroy” Donald Trump because of their “hatred of American values, and our heritage.” He also claimed Democrats “are waging war on everything American, our Constitution, our president, the American people.”
The network was a conduit for fake scandals directed against then-Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden — which led to Trump’s first impeachment.
At first, Fox News barely covered the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s reported promise to a foreign leader.
Fox News’ reaction to the Ukraine call summary was nearly identical to the White House’s suggested talking points.
Fox host Sean Hannity: “The world is less safe and secure tonight” because of the Trump impeachment inquiry.
Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett: Trump was “duty-bound” to ask Ukraine to investigate his political opponent. Similarly, Hannity said Trump had “a sworn duty, a constitutional duty” to ask Ukraine for a favor.
Fox anchor Ed Henry said Trump had been “honest and transparent” about wanting foreign governments to investigate his political rival.
The network frequently blamed the “deep state” for the Trump impeachment inquiry.
Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera called the whistleblower against Trump a deep state punk snitch.
Fox guest Joe diGenova, a close ally of Trump’s then-attorney Rudy Giuliani, called the impeachment inquiry “regicide” and called whistleblowers “suicide bombers.”
Fox guest Ken Starr, who previously investigated then-President Bill Clinton, bemoaned this time: “There is too much of a rush toward impeachment.”
Fox News used on-screen graphics to push pro-Trump lies and talking points against impeachment hearing witnesses.
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum pushed a smear against former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, which the source had already recanted.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace said that unnamed “right-wing media” had spread smears against Yovanovitch. (He was talking about his colleagues at Fox.)
Fox News echoed White House talking points attacking Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry.
Former Trump administration acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker claimed that impeachment would “hurt people's Christmas experience.”
Fox anchor Sandra Smith told a blatant lie, claiming that Trump wanted key witnesses to testify.
Fox host Mark Levin proclaimed: “The next Democrat president of the United States must be impeached.”
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2020
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Fox News mounted a “so what?” defense over President Trump having pressured a foreign government into investigating his political opponent.
Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, claimed that the president should still be able to “abuse his power” without being impeached.
Fox “news”-side anchor Shannon Bream said about Trump’s impeachment trial: “You can’t be guilty of murder if you don’t kill someone.”
Trump drew the members of his impeachment legal team from their appearances on cable news — primarily Fox — which even attracted praise from Fox’s Laura Ingraham.
The network told viewers to not even bother watching the impeachment trial, as it was too “boring.”
Fox host Tucker Carlson apologized to his viewers for exposing them to a clip from the impeachment trial.
Fox News aired more coverage on one night of Trump's defense presentation than it did of all three nights from the House managers.
Fox host Lou Dobbs claimed elected Democrats are “quite simply the enemies of the people”
Early in the pandemic, news anchor Sandra Smith said: “Obviously, there's speculation [the pandemic] could get worse. Some say, like the president, it could miraculously disappear.”
Other Fox hosts agreed with Trump that the virus was a “hoax.”
Fox host Sean Hannity reiterated that the virus was a “hoax” being used to “bludgeon Trump.”
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel said early on that the “worst-case scenario” for the coronavirus is “it could be the flu.”
Siegel claimed coronavirus concerns are being intentionally overblown to hurt Trump politically.
Siegel attacked the World Health Organization as “a bunch of alarmists” and “saber rattlers” for warning about the coronavirus.
Siegel said Dr. Anthony Fauci “should not be” saying anything contrary to Trump.
Siegel downplayed the surge of summer cases as “manageable” and claimed “overall it’s milder cases,” even as the daily death toll began to rise again.
Even late in 2020, Siegel called testing for the coronavirus a “pseudo-religion.”
Dobbs claimed that “the president was right and frankly Fauci was wrong” about unproven experimental medicines.
Dobbs claimed Fauci was on “a jihad of sorts against the Trump presidency.”
Fox News anchor Ed Henry said COVID-19 deaths in Florida were among elderly people, “so when you hear the context, it’s not quite as scary.”
Fox's Martha MacCallum scolded a Democratic congressman for bringing up Trump’s coronavirus lies.
A Fox News coronavirus special featured a quack doctor who told viewers to “conduct your life normally.”
Dobbs ran an online poll asking if Trump’s response to the virus had been “superb,” “great,” or “very good.”
Fox News’ Stephen Moore questioned if California’s steps to prevent spread of the coronavirus are worth the “economic damage.”
A Fox Business panel said the economic shutdown was worse than the virus, touting the “U.K. strategy” of letting everyone get infected immediately.
Hannity read Mike Pence a letter from an unidentified doctor detailing a drug “regimen” the doctor claims prevents COVID-19 deaths.
Fox anchor: “Every life matters ... but when the mortality rate is that low, what is the balance?”
Dobbs attacked health experts for not praising Trump’s “leadership.”
Hannity threatened to sue “the media mob” for criticizing his coverage of COVID-19 pandemic.
Carlson defended a statement by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) that grandparents would be willing to die for the economy.
Fox host Laura Ingraham reportedly advised Trump on using antimalarial drugs as a coronavirus cure. The network promoted hydroxychloroquine nearly 300 times in a two-week period. Here is our comprehensive guide to Fox’s promotion of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.
Carlson on April 7, 2020: The coronavirus crisis “may have passed. We’ll see, but it looks like it may have.”
Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade said about the possibility of 60,000 American deaths: “That's how good we are doing.”
The network downplayed the news that COVID-19 deaths had reached 100,000. The network also downplayed the news when deaths reached 200,000.
When the death toll reached 300,000, the network’s “straight news” side barely reported it — while its prime-time hosts claimed that deaths had been overcounted.
Fox's Brit Hume claimed the number of coronavirus deaths was being inflated. So did news anchor Harris Faulkner. Fox contributor Raymond Arroyo accused hospitals of inflating the numbers for financial gain.
Fox News contributor Bill Bennett likened COVID-19 to the flu in April of 2020: “This was not, and is not, a pandemic.”
Fox News guest: “The number of deaths from the shutdown may exceed the number of deaths from the coronavirus.”
Fox News promoted protests against social distancing measures: “God bless them.”
A Fox News host called for reopening without testing for the coronavirus: “We can't hide from it. We must learn to live with it.”
Fox host: End restrictions “everywhere as quickly as possible” because COVID-19 is “only terrible for a very small group of people.”
Carlson: COVID-19 “just isn't nearly as deadly as we thought it was.”
Ingraham claimed that urging people to wear masks is a media plot to keep the public in a state of fear.
A Fox host suggested Democratic governors are making people stay at home to hurt Trump politically.
A Fox anchor praised the White House for “pushing back” on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projections showing 3,000 daily COVID-19 deaths.
Carlson told his audience the COVID-19 crisis was “easing” as models revised death estimates upward.
As the COVID-19 death toll rose, Fox hosts agreed that the crisis is over — even though they couldn’t agree on why.
A Fox & Friends host downplayed the need for testing, suggesting that data can be manipulated.
Fox News hosts called for a “military mindset” to get people to enter public spaces despite COVID-19 threat.
On May 14, 2020, Hannity declared that coronavirus infections had peaked: “Thankfully, tonight, the worst has been avoided.”
A Fox & Friends co-host: “At some point you're going to have to open up” and “let the chips fall where they may, as terrible that sounds.”
Fox News gave celebratory coverage to a New Jersey gym’s decision to reopen and flout coronavirus health protocols.
Over four days, Fox & Friends hosted 49 people to discuss the novel coronavirus. Only one was a medical professional.
Fox News dismissed Americans dying: “Every death is tragic, but ... .” Check out the worst of Fox’s pandemic coverage.
After an Associated Press report on the Trump campaign’s push to organize anti-lockdown doctors, Fox News pushed a letter from a new doctor group urging the quick reopening of businesses and the end of shelter-in-place orders.
Fox's Pete Hegseth promoted a “reopen movement” website: “The authorities can't shut everybody down if we the people say we're open.”
Hume defended Trump’s refusal to wear a mask because “he doesn’t want to look funny.”
Contributor Raymond Arroyo said Biden wearing a mask was “virtue-signaling.”
Following Trump’s ever-shifting public stances, host Steve Doocy obliviously declared: “For some reason … masks have become political.”
Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway denounced the “outrage and shame directed at skeptics of mask-wearing.”
The hosts of Fox & Friends Weekend defended Trump’s remarks about slowing down COVID-19 testing: “That's part of his delivery.”
Fox News contributor and former White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders credited Trump’s response to the pandemic: “He got government out of the way.” The network helped to pitch the White House’s new line that “we have to live with the virus.”
A Fox host lashed out at a colleague for mentioning the COVID-19 death toll.
Carlson claimed that masks and social distancing “have no basis of any kind in science”
Fox & Friends admitted in passing that going to the gym is very risky — after months of campaigning for gyms to reopen.
The next week, Kilmeade wanted all gyms to reopen.
Host Steve Hilton claimed that sharp rises in coronavirus were “actually good news,” because it “moves us further forward to the point where the virus can't spread anymore.”
Ingraham promoted Sweden as a role model for a laissez-faire approach to the pandemic — while the country’s scientists were warning the world to not copy their country.
Carlson remarked on YouTube’s official policy to not allow dangerous COVID-19 lies: “Thankfully, none of this applies to us at Fox News.”
Fox & Friends defended Trump’s false statements that children were immune from the virus, after social media platforms removed a video clip.
Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt declared “shock” that children get the coronavirus, saying, “I’ve heard kids really don’t get it,” and asked an emergency room doctor, “It's just minimal side effects, right?” (The doctor then explained that it really is serious.)
Fox downplayed COVID-19’s impact on children, as part of Trump’s push to fully reopen schools.
After Trump was revealed on tape to have deliberately downplayed the serious threat of COVID-19, Fox host Greg Gutfeld claimed that this was part of his “role as a leader.”
Hemingway defended Trump, claiming that COVID-19 was “a much less serious threat than we thought.”
Doocy compared Trump’s deliberate lying about the virus to President Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats during the Great Depression.
Fox News contributor Charlie Hurt compared Trump’s downplaying of COVID-19 to how then-President George W. Bush continued to read a children’s book at a school on 9/11 —and he meant this as a positive thing
When Trump himself contracted the virus, the network’s hosts struggled to realize this was actually serious.
Hilton said Trump's illness would help in the election: “He himself will be a metaphor for the recovery of the country.”
Gutfeld similarly praised Trump for having “took the risk, he got the virus," because “he was doing it for us.”
One of Ingraham’s frequent medical guests responded to Trump’s diagnosis: “This happens. Life is risk.”
When Trump was hospitalized, Fox contributor Jason Chaffetz attacked Biden for having taken precautions.
Hume said Biden should debate Trump in person, even if Trump was still contagious.
Dobbs attacked Biden for “searching for a way out” of debating if Trump was still contagious.
Fox figures again touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for Trump’s case.
The network also attacked any public effort to criticize Trump for his own flouting of safety precautions during the pandemic.
After Trump had left Walter Reed Medical Center and was returning to the campaign trail, Fox “straight news” anchor Bill Hemmer promoted his appearance as “a post-COVID president.”
The network attacked then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) for appearing remotely at a Supreme Court confirmation hearing — while a COVID-positive GOP senator was attending in person.
The network embraced calls for “herd immunity" by allowing the virus to run rampant.
Frequent Ingraham guest Dr. Ramin Oskoui attacked mask-wearing for slowing down “herd immunity.”
Trump selected radiologist and frequently wrong Fox News guest Dr. Scott Atlas as his new coronavirus adviser. Atlas then began derailing the coronavirus task force with dangerous misinformation. Atlas also pushed misinformation during every one of his Fox News appearances, but anchor Sandra Smith once said that the network would continue booking him “because people want to believe what you’re saying.” By the time Atlas left the White House, hospitalizations were surging again.
Hannity claimed that “coronavirus hysteria” was an attempt to “demoralize voters, especially the supporters of the president.”
Ingraham promised that Republicans would not listen to “health experts” on pandemic response if they won the election.
As pandemic deaths soared, Hilton called for a “lockdown rebellion,” saying that “business owners all over the country” should “rise up together.”
Other Fox hosts called for civil disobedience against coronavirus measures — even with the vaccines just weeks away.
The network promoted guideline-flouting businesses — even after one bar co-owner allegedly ran over a police officer.
Fox Business host Charles Payne complained of restaurant restrictions on outdoor dining: “It’s not even the people who eat there, it’s the employees” who are at risk.
Ingraham: COVID-19 is “less lethal than the flu.”
Fox host Will Cain claimed that people who wear masks “treat it as a virtue signal that they're better, more scientific-minded, smarter than you.”
Carlson began his campaign against the COVID-19 vaccines: “In this country, we control our own bodies. They're always telling us that. But no. Suddenly, the rules have changed.” Timeline: Carlson’s unhinged COVID-19 coverage.
Carlson claimed that Michelle Obama’s promotion of mail-in voting would “instantly destroy the public's faith in election outcomes.”
Fox's Sarah Sanders cited “the whole illusion of the Russia hoax” as a reason to oppose mail-in ballots.
Fox Business host Stuart Varney justified Trump’s call to “delay the election” over mail-in voting “confusion.”
With the help of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, Fox & Friends used Trump’s “Delay the Election” tweet to lie about mail-in voting.
Dobbs accused Democrats of “pushing mail-in voter fraud.”
Dobbs claimed in August 2020 that it “looks like there may be about 80 million ballots that should be questioned,” based on an expected number of total mail-in votes. (As it later turned out, Biden won just over 81 million votes, cast in various ways.)
Dobbs suggested that China was shipping “tens of thousands of fake IDs and documents” into the U.S. so people could vote fraudulently.
Dobbs claimed that mail-in voting was a plot by the American Postal Workers Union to steal the election.
Fox’s “straight news” anchors praised Attorney General Bill Barr's harshly criticized remarks against mail-in voting.
Trump, Barr, and Fox News worked in concert to undermine confidence in the election.
Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher painted a lurid image of gangs that “lie in wait” to steal mail-in ballots.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace failed to push back when Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski claimed there would be “no need to continue to count” any votes after election night.
Fox News pushed Trump’s plan to invalidate hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes.
Newt Gingrich called for the arrest of election workers.
Dobbs suggested the Republican Party should say that “we’re not going to accept the results of this election.” Dobbs questioned why Republicans wouldn’t “surround” Philadelphia and exert a “demanding presence.” Dobbs told Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, “We will gladly put forward your evidence” that the 2020 election “was a cyber Pearl Harbor.” Dobbs claimed, “Many are trying to steal this election from President Trump.” Dobbs warned that there “will not be a quiet surrender” if the election results weren't overturned. Dobbs and Republican lawyer Harmeet Dhillon suggested that newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett “will come through” for Trump to help overturn the election results in Pennsylvania.
Hannity claimed that a “do-over” of Pennsylvania’s election was “the only remedy.”
In the two weeks after the network’s own decision desk called the election for Biden, Fox News cast doubt on the results nearly 800 times.
Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo promoted theories from Trump team members Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell that voting machines had changed the results of the election.
Bartiromo hosted an interview with Trump, enabling him to spread lies about dead voters and rigged voting machines.
Fox “straight news” anchor Bill Hemmer said Powell’s conspiracy theories “sounded convincing.”
Fox's “news side” continuously supported Trump’s challenges to the election results.
After Michigan Republicans backtracked on an attempt to block the counting of all votes from the city of Detroit, Fox’s “news side” said that GOP officials were “caving in.”
Dobbs called on Trump to take “drastic action” over nonexistent election fraud.
Fox’s flagship “straight news” program downplayed Trump’s lies about the election.
Fox News promoted a baseless lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued four swing states in an effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court throw out their election results.
Dobbs called the Supreme Court “cowardly” for denying Republican appeals to overturn the election.
Dobbs complained that not enough Republicans were supporting Trump's attempted coup.
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2021
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As the year began, Fox News actively pushed efforts by Republicans in Congress to block the counting of the official electoral votes.
When a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on January 6, Fox’s “straight news” coverage seriously downplayed the violence. Even after Trump supporters had fought their way past barricades to climb the walls of the Capitol, anchor Bret Baier claimed, “It's not like it's a siege. ... It seems like they are protesting.” Fox host Lou Dobbs accused Congress of being “melodramatic.” Dobbs even defended the insurrectionists at the Capitol, claiming they “were walking between the rope lines.” Following the insurrection’s failure, however, Fox host Laura Ingraham speculated that night that the rioters weren’t really Trump supporters, because they were wearing helmets and knee pads.
Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo also claimed two weeks after the Capitol attack that “Democrats infiltrated two weeks ago and put on MAGA clothing.”
Fox host Tucker Carlson began painting an alternate reality about the event, insisting there was no insurrection and pushing the repeatedly disproven claim that white supremacists were not involved. In Carlson’s telling, moreover, the rioters were indeed great American patriots. Carlson later gave a platform to a conspiracy theory that January 6 was a false flag operation organized by the FBI.
In the immediate wake of the Capitol attack, Fox personalities also began pushing a series of talking points about changing the voting laws to restrict Americans’ access to the ballot box. The network has since gone all-in on supporting the wave of voter suppression laws that have been passed in Republican-controlled state legislatures.
Additionally, Carlson has repeatedly spread the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, receiving Fox’s full corporate support and the praise of online white nationalists. In response to the Anti-Defamation League calling for his firing over the incidents, Carlson replied: “Well, fuck them.”
Carlson has also used his Fox show to spread false claims that “thousands” of people have been killed by the COVID-19 vaccines. Carlson has alleged that vaccination requirements in the military are a plot to purge “sincere Christians" and “men with high testosterone.”
In addition to Carlson, the network as a whole has relentlessly sought to undermine vaccines throughout the year. Meanwhile, Fox hosts and guests have promoted a concerning number of possible treatments for COVID-19. Some of these treatments have mixed evidence of viability; others are straight bunk, like “bear bile.”
Fox News has celebrated people who resist taking the COVID-19 vaccines and called for “civil disobedience” against vaccine and testing requirements. The network requires its own employees to take the vaccines or undergo daily testing.